Box vs Fastmail

Box (Box, Inc.) and Fastmail (Open-source software developed at Fastmail.) both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Box (rank #93) holds a modest lead over Fastmail (rank #430) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (56 vs 40). The gap of 16 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), Box is clearly ahead of Fastmail. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), Box is ahead of Fastmail. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Fastmail is ahead of Box. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), Fastmail is ahead of Box.

Box carries 14,074 GitHub stars across 84 public repos, with 18 repositories active in the last 90 days and 33 external contributors on record. Fastmail shows 6,316 stars across 38 public repos, 12 active in the last 90 days and 2 external contributors.

Box is the stronger read for anyone weighting code quality. Fastmail looks better where reach is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.